Prior art methods of preparing crystalline X zeolite typically produce finely divided crystals which must be separated from an excess of liquid in which the zeolite is crystallized. The liquid, in turn, must be treated for reuse or else be discarded, with potentially deleterious environmental consequences. Preparing commercially useful catalytic and/or adsorbent materials which contain the powdered zeolite also normally requires additional binding and forming steps. Typically, the zeolite powder as crystallized must be mixed with a binder material and then formed into shaped particles or agglomerates, using methods such as extruding, agglomeration, spray drying, and the like. These binding and forming steps greatly increase the complexity of manufacture of X zeolite materials. The additional steps may also have an adverse effect on the performance of the X zeolite so bound and formed.
It would be desirable to have an economical method for preparing an X zeolite which would avoid the aforementioned problems and reliably produce an X zeolite. Furthermore, it would be desirable to produce an X zeolite having a high molecular sieve content enabling a high degree of adsorption capacity per unit volume during the use of the zeolite as an adsorbent material.